


Slow Day

by Murataku



Category: Duncan & Mallory Series - Robert Asprin & Mel White
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-28
Updated: 2014-10-28
Packaged: 2018-02-22 23:50:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,234
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2526218
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Murataku/pseuds/Murataku
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Slow days encourage aimless conversation and grumbling. Well, at least it's not jail</p>
            </blockquote>





	Slow Day

Tick

5 seconds until 9am.

Tock

4 seconds.

Tick

Trois.

Tock

Zwei.

Tick

Uno.

Tock

Annnnd, safe.

"Sadie, wake up. It's 9 o clock, there's a table reserved in the cafe and I've already ordered coffee so you've got no excuses and you can't hit me. C'mon, get up."

This was not as effective as expected. In fact, it wasn't effective at all, as it only caused the woman in the other bed to roll over and draw the blankets tighter around her.

"G'way, Blgwatr.....'m sleepin..." The reaction caused her considerably more alert partner to smile.

"I can see that."

"Mmmmffrgldf....."

"There's coffee if you wake up. It should be ready by now, are you going to let it get cold?"

"Don' care.....Sleepin..." This was getting him nowhere. Time to take a more direct approach, and to pray that she didn't decide to hit him.

"Wake up, or I'll take your blankets and throw them in the bath."

No response.

"I'll drink your coffee."

"You'll WHAT?"

Well, that did it.

"You'll do no such bloody thing if you value your life!"

...Prehaps too well. Damage control mode engage.

"NononolookIonlywantedyoutowakeupit'sforagoodreason!" He stammered out, backing up with his eyes screwed shut and his hands in front of his face so he didn't have to see Sadie's expression as she stormed over. Anybody who said he didn't have much to fear from a small woman whose entire fighting experience amounted to slapping a small pirate when he grabbed her the wrong way would be invited to take a look at her when she was angry, tired and suffering from a particularly bad case of bed hair to boot and then dared to still tell him he was being a wimp. Feeling his back bump into the wall and realising the window was too far away for a quick (if undignified) escape, he went back to fevered explinations, slowed down slightly so his tired and not entirely herself partner could take them in.

"I need you to be up when I'm up and stick near me. We're supposed to be a team, right? And anyway, if everything goes nasty and you're not there with me I'll have to take a detour to come get you, which could land us both behind bars. T-that makes sense, r-right, Sadie? ......Right?" The woman halted her advance. She was still glaring, but at least she wasn't moving the glare any closer to him anymore.

"....you said you were going out for coffee. How exactly can that get nasty?" She had him there. Relaxing slightly, he shrugged.

"I don't know, things tend to go wrong some way or another. Better safe than sorry." Deciding to just go for broke, he stepped around her and headed for the door, tugging her along by her arm. "Come on, Sadie. You'll feel better after you have the coffee."

Two cups of coffee later, Sadie seemed to be in a much better mood. Propping her head up on one arm, she stared at him as he studied the menu. Not that he intended to eat anything (they hardly had enough money for the coffees), but he could at least imagine all the delicious things they were constantly missing out on. Eventually, he looked up.

"What?"

"What what?"

"Do I have something on my face or something?" Sadie shook her head.

"Only your glasses. They need a clean, by the way, you've been reading out the prices wrong for a while now."

"Eh?"

"That says $30, not $3."

"Oh."

"You thought the smudge was a dot point."

"Maybe." Smirk. "Oh, shut up, you try keeping these clean." Sadie chuckled and took his glasses, wiping them on her shirt.

"There. It's amazing how hard that was." Grumbling, Bilgewater grabbed back his glasses and put them on. After blinking for a few seconds, he dropped his head and mumbled something. Sadie smirked. "I'm sorry, what was that?"

"It's actually better now..." Bilgewater muttered, apparently trying to stare holes in his menu. Suddenly he looked up. "I remember. Why were you staring at me?"

"Honestly? I was trying to remember why I started hanging around you in the first place."

Bilgewater frowned, puzzled. His first instinct was to smirk at her and point out the obviousness of the answer...but then she was bound to get skeptical and ask him what the answer was, if it was so damn obvious to him. And then he'd be forced to admit he didn't know it. Which was something he was really in no hurry to do just in case she realised that he may not always know everything. The fact that she had long ago worked this out was something he'd managed to stay firmly in denial to and he didn't intend to stop now. Saving face, he went for what had always been his best guess.

"Money?" Everything about them went back to wanting money somehow, so he figured it was a safe bet. "Does it really matter?"

"Guess not." Sadie said, shrugging. "Any plans today?"

Bilgewater looked around the empty room and sighed. "I was hoping for a card game to start up so we could pay the bill, but unless you know how to cheat the air we'll be waiting a while."

Sadie took a glance around the room as well and sighed. As well. "Face it, we've been here too long. We've cleaned the place out."

"You might be right." Bilgewater muttered, catching sight of a frightened face in the door way spotting them and scurrying off. "Surprised nobody's come after us, then."

"Are you complaining?" Asked Sadie, taking out a card pack and starting on a tower. Since it looked like it wasn't going to see any serious use today it was only fair to give it an airing.

"No," Bilgewater said, scanning the menu again in the absence of any other reading material. "It'd just be nice if our continued freedom didn't come at the price of having absolutely nothing happen for three days straight."

"Thems the breaks, I guess. I suppose, if you want more excitement, we could try to attract the attention of a certain dragon and knight..."

"Bite your tongue."

Sadie sighed and started on the third story of her tower. "Boredom it is, then."

"Looks that way."

For a while, they slipped into silence: Sadie building her tower, Bilgewater trying to find shapes in the drops of coffee still left in his mug. They lasted exactly one minute before the silence became unbearable. Simultaneously, they leaned forward and gushed out a sentence.

"Sadiethisisunbearable-"

"Bilgethisissoboring-"

"..."

"..."

"You first."

"No, you."

Shrug. "I was only breaking the silence, frankly."

"Oh...Do you ever miss home?"

Snort. "Hardly. Even boredom is better than that."

Sadie nodded thoughtfully. "Same."

Another minute of silence before they both cracked again. This time they managed to catch themselves before they spoke.

Sadie gestured to Bilgewater. "Your turn. I got it last time."

"...Honestly, I had nothing."

Half a minute.

".....No, your go."

" I have an idea."

"Enlighten me, please."

"I say.....We go back to our beds.....and get some more sleep."

There was a screech as two chairs slid backwards in unison.

"Oh bloody hell yes."

Twin sets of footsteps, then two thuds as two tired, grumpy and most importantly BORED people hit their separate beds and fell asleep.

What the hell, the day was a bust anyway.


End file.
